The Aristides de Sousa Mendes Museum will be inaugurated on the 19th in Cabanas de Viriato, Carregal do Sal, where the consul who helped save thousands of refugees in World War II was born 139 years ago.
The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, is expected to attend the inauguration of the space, which opens to the public the following day.
In a press release, the Carregal do Sal City Council, led by Paulo Catalino Ferraz, says that this is the “rebirth of Casa do Passal, a place that preserves the memories of the Sousa Mendes family”.
“Memories now perpetuated in an emblematic place where life, man and, in particular, the act of heroism and its impact on national and international history will be portrayed.”
The program includes a visit inside the museum, the inauguration of a statue of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, lunch in the gardens of Casa do Passal and, at the end of the day, at the Carregal do Sal Cultural Centre, the show “Aristides – The Concert”.
“The day before, on July 18, a more private tribute will be held at Casa do Passal by relatives of Aristides de Sousa Mendes and descendants of survivors who received visas from the diplomat.”
The program includes a visit by guests to the museum and a dinner in the museum’s gardens, which have also been renovated, followed by a tribute to Aristides de Sousa Mendes, “Ecos do Passal”, at the Carregal do Sal Cultural Centre.
The Aristides de Sousa Mendes Museum opens its doors to the public on the 20th to “evoke the values of tolerance and peace, perpetuating the legacy and memory of Aristides de Sousa Mendes”.
“Casa do Passal, affectionately known by the local population as Casa do Doutor Aristides, was the home of the diplomat’s family. It was also the home of countless refugees who fled the Holocaust.”
The property, built in the 19th century and expanded in the first decades of the 20th century, was classified as a National Monument in 2011 and, over the years, “has been the target of small and large interventions” to keep it standing.
Since 2021, the current executive, chaired by Paulo Catalino Ferras, has invested “more than 3.5 million euros” in the Casa do Passal for its requalification, musealization and exterior arrangements, an amount that was supported by the EU.
Aristides de Sousa Mendes was born on July 19, 1885, in Cabanas de Viriato, Carregal do Sal, in the district of Viseu. He graduated in Law from the University of Coimbra and pursued a diplomatic career, working in several countries.
At the start of World War II, he was Consul General of Portugal in Bordeaux and, in June 1940, following the German advance into French territory, thousands of refugees flocked to the city.
It was precisely in Bordeaux that Aristides de Sousa Mendes decided to issue thousands of visas for them to cross Spain and enter Portugal, saving them from Nazi persecution.
“A gesture of courage and humanism that continues to be admired and celebrated as one of the greatest rescue actions undertaken by a single person. However, the heroic act led to a disciplinary sentence and the end of his career.”
The diplomat died in Lisbon on April 3, 1954, and was considered a ‘Righteous Among the Nations’, posthumously decorated with the Grand Cross of the Order of Liberty by the President of the Republic in 2017 and, since October 2021, has had National Pantheon honors.
